India to set up mega food parks project

Oct 25, 2011 12:00 AM

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the setting up 15 new mega food park projects under the infrastructure development scheme, involving a total government grant of Rs 787.50 crore. This is in addition to the 15 ongoing projects, an official release said. The setting up of 15 new mega food parks will result in the creation of state-of-the-art infrastructure in major parts of the country with efficient supply chain management from farm gate to retail outlets.

The projects while helping in value addition and reduction of wastage, are expected to generate additional employment and improve incomes of farmers. The scheme, which will be implemented in a market-driven manner, commensurate with both global and national demands, would require creation of an innovative supply chain management for its effective implementation. The procedure for implementation of the project involves inviting expressions of interest (EOI) from prospective entrepreneurs and selection of the most suitable proposal. The timeline for project implementation in respect of each mega food park is 24 months from the date of release of first tranche of the first instalment.

Each mega food park, with investments of about Rs 100-crore, is expected to benefit 6,000 farmers/ producers directly and 25,000-30,000 farmers indirectly. These projects will leverage additional investments of about Rs 250 crore. Each mega food park is expected to have annual turnover of Rs 500.00 crore, each. Together, these are expected to generate about 40,000 direct and indirect jobs. The mega food park will house 30 to 40 food processing units each.

The infrastructure development scheme for mega food parks aims at providing excellent infrastructure facilities for food processing industries along the value chain from farm to market. The scheme operates in hub and spoke model under which there will be farm proximate collection centres and primary processing centres, which will facilitate cleaning, grading, sorting and packing. These will also have dry warehouses, specialised cold stores, including pre-cooling chambers, ripening chambers, reefer vans, mobile pre-coolers and mobile collection vans.